Dr. Marc Breedlove

I mean, there's no way around that.

But in terms of what one can do, there are limits.

And in terms of sexual orientation, I can tell you people look really hard for any social correlates.

You talked earlier about the dad that's missing, or even Freud talked about the overly coddling mother.

and the dismissive father.

That might make a boy more likely to be gay.

And so people have looked for those sorts of correlates.

The data just aren't there.

I mean, it's really... Which I think is interesting and kind of strange because you'd think that if the social influence was that good, that you'd find something.

And so in terms of sexual orientation, I think the data are pretty weak.

However...

In terms of other expressions of male-like behavior, clearly culture and family has a say, right?

I mean, they clearly make an influence.

I mean, in terms of what boys are supposed to do, I would say probably the only sex difference that will persist and that almost certainly is due to biological factors like testosterone is, you mentioned already, rough and tumble play across so many species.

You know, you put a bunch of males together and there'll be a lot more physical activity than if you put a bunch of females together.

And an interesting thing happens if you put it in a mixed group and it doesn't matter whether it's monkeys or rats, the overall play will be intermediate.

It's like the girls calm the boys down and the boys ramp the girls up a little bit.

And so that might be, you know...

one that's going to be pretty hard to corral with social influences, but virtually every other expression of masculine behavior, of course, you know, culture and family make a difference.

I don't know if, you know, I'm going to suggest anyone send their child to...